- DESCRIPTION OF THE WRITER COMPENSATION PROGRAM
The WCP allows you to earn money for posting how-to articles on our Site. In general, the factors that may affect how much money you may earn for your articles include, directly or indirectly, the following:
- Popularity of the article;
- Number and quality of inbound links to the article;
- Topicality and newsworthiness of the article content;
- Usefulness and applicability of the article content;
- User response to your articles, such as positive reviews and comments;
- Degree of specialization of the article content; and
- Quality of the writing.
We sincerely hope you will take this opportunity to write articles that are valuable to our users and, in the process, earn money! It's in our best interest to keep you coming back to write more articles to earn more money. HOWEVER, BY PARTICIPATING IN THE WCP, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT EHOW WILL DETERMINE, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, HOW MUCH MONEY (IF ANY) YOU EARN FOR THE ARTICLES THAT YOU POST.
- USER ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS; PARTICIPATION IN THE WCP
To be eligible to participate in the WCP, you must be a legal resident of the United States and at least 18 years old (or the legal age required to form a binding contract in your jurisdiction if that age is greater than 18) with a valid social security number (or employer ID number, if applicable). eHow reserves the right to deny your access to or participation in the WCP at any time in its sole discretion. Your participation in the WCP is, at all times, subject to your full compliance with all of the Terms (including terms incorporated into them, e.g., the Supplemental Terms) and any guidelines or policies that eHow may post on the Site or provide to you from time to time ("Policies").
- ENROLLMENT IN THE WCP
To enroll in the WCP, you must complete the WCP enrollment process on the Site. You agree to provide accurate and complete information during the WCP enrollment process including, but not limited to, information required for tax reporting (e.g., a valid U.S. taxpayer identification number and a fully-completed Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") Form W 9) and a valid PayPal account, bank account or other payment system acceptable to eHow for payments under the WCP. You also agree that you will maintain and update such information (including, without limitation, your current physical and e-mail addresses) to ensure its accuracy and completeness at all times. You acknowledge that eHow has no liability to you or any third party for any failure to make payments because of inaccurate or incomplete information in your Account.
Under the WCP, you may be eligible to earn money for Content that you post on the Site if such Content is a substantive how-to article (which does not include, for example, comments to an article, ratings, and similar Content), provided that such article does not contain prohibited Content as specified in the Terms. By enrolling in the WCP, you agree that all such Content that you post on the Site and any such Content that you posted on the Site prior to enrolling will be eligible to earn you money. However, eHow is under no obligation to monitor the Content you post and may determine at any time, at its sole discretion, that the Content you posted is not eligible for compensation.
- WCP EARNINGS AND PAYMENTS
Any money you earn during a calendar month for eligible Content that you posted on the Site will be reflected in your Account within approximately thirty (30) days after the end of the calendar month in which it was accrued. For example, any money you earn on June 30 and July 1 will be reflected in your Account by approximately July 30 and August 30, respectively.
You are not eligible to receive any payments for the earnings reflected in your Account until your accrued total balance of such earnings is at least ten U.S. dollars (US$10). Subject to the following paragraph and provided that your Account remains in good standing and has not been terminated, (i) eHow will automatically distribute any earnings reflected in your Account that are $10 or more during the month that follows the month in which your earnings reached $10, and (ii) during January of each calendar year, and provided that your Account has been in existence and in good standing for at least the prior six (6) months, eHow will automatically distribute any earnings reflected in your Account at the end of the prior calendar year that are more than $1 and less than $10, minus a $1 nonrefundable processing fee. In the event the earnings reflected in your Account are less than $1 at the end of any calendar year, those earnings will be forfeited and reset to $0 (zero dollars) during January of the following calendar year, and you will not be entitled to payment of any such earnings. All payments to you will be made in U.S. dollars to your designated PayPal account or other payment system acceptable to eHow as provided in your Account. You will not be entitled to receive interest or late charges on any earnings or payments. To ensure proper payment, you are solely responsible for providing and maintaining accurate contact and payment information in your Account.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will have no obligation to pay you any earnings reflected in your Account or in any accounts you set up with Demand Media or other affiliates of eHow (for example, those listed at www.demandmedia.com, and may deduct or withhold such earnings, if we determine or reasonably suspect, in our sole discretion, that such earnings have resulted from any acts or omissions intended or designed to improperly increase your earnings under the WCP, including without limitation: (i) repeated manual clicks or impressions, use of robots, automated click and impression generating tools, third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as paid-to-click, paid-to-surf, autosurf, and click-exchange programs, clicks solicited by payment of money, false representation or request for end users to click on ads, use of any deceptive software, clicks originating from your IP addresses or computers under your control, any legitimate actions co-mingled with a significant number of any of the foregoing actions, or use of any other methods that artificially generate clicks or impressions associated with your Content or increase the traffic or visitors to your Content and any advertisements surrounding your Content; (ii) actions originating from Content that breaches the Terms, including but not limited to the restrictions set forth in the "Prohibited Content" section therein; or (iii) fraudulent, misleading or false actions or activities. You represent and promise that you will not, and will not cause others to, engage in any of the foregoing actions or activities. eHow reserves the right to withhold or deduct payments, if applicable, or suspend or otherwise disable your Account, pending eHow's reasonable investigation of any of the foregoing or your breach of the Terms or Supplemental Terms. You acknowledge and agree that eHow may undertake auditing and other processes to monitor and address the foregoing actions and activities, and that evidence of such actions or activities may result in (a) immediate disqualification from participation in the WCP and other features and services on the Site; (b) termination of your Account; (c) prohibition of your use of any of the services of eHow, Demand Media and their affiliates; and (d) forfeiture of any and all earnings in your Account.
If you dispute any payment made by eHow to you under the WCP, you must notify eHow in writing within ninety (90) days of receiving such payment. Failure to notify eHow in this manner will result in your waiver of any claim relating to such dispute. eHow will use reasonable efforts to resolve any such dispute in good faith, but eHow's resolution will be final and binding upon you.
- TAXES
You are solely responsible for all applicable federal, state, local, and foreign taxes or charges imposed by any government entity, directly or indirectly, in connection with your enrollment and participation in the WCP. eHow intends to file an IRS Form 1099 or other tax forms as required by the relevant governmental authorities, as applicable, for any year in which payments are made to you of at least ten U.S. dollars (US $10.00). In order to allow eHow to comply with its U.S. federal income tax reporting requirements, you agree to accurately complete an IRS Form W 9 when you enroll in the WCP. If you do not provide complete and accurate information when enrolling in the WCP, eHow may, in its sole discretion, withhold payment or reduce amounts paid to you by appropriate amounts withheld for the payment of U.S. federal income tax. You agree to maintain and update the information you provide on the IRS Form W-9 to ensure its accuracy at all times.
- TERMINATION OF THE WCP OR YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE WCP; EFFECT ON PAYMENTS
eHow reserves the right to terminate the WCP, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason. If applicable law requires us to do so, eHow will give prior or subsequent notice of the termination of the WCP by posting it on the Site or by sending a notification regarding such termination to the email address specified on your Account. eHow will not be responsible for failing to notify you of the termination of the WCP where such failure is caused by an inaccurate email address, your failure to check your email online, or your failure to inform eHow of a change in your email address.
You may terminate your participation in the WCP at any time in accordance with the instructions provided on the Site. Your participation in the WCP will be deemed terminated within ten (10) business days of eHow's receipt of your instructions. You agree and acknowledge that your participation in the WCP will terminate upon your death. eHow has the right to terminate and prohibit, at its sole discretion, your participation in the WCP and any other services of eHow, Demand Media and their affiliates, at any time and for any reason, including without limitation upon its belief or discovery that (a) the information you provided during the WCP enrollment process is incomplete, fraudulent or inaccurate; or (b) you have breached any of your obligations under, or failed to comply with, the Terms (including terms incorporated into them, e.g., the Supplemental Terms) or any Policies.
Except where your Account is terminated by eHow due to your failure to comply with the Terms (including terms incorporated into them, e.g., the Supplemental Terms) or any Policies, eHow will have ninety (90) days after the termination of the WCP or your participation in the WCP to pay the earned balance in your Account as of the applicable termination date. If your Account is terminated by eHow due to your failure to comply with the Terms (including terms incorporated into them, e.g., the Supplemental Terms) or any Policies, you will forfeit the earned balance in your Account and eHow will have no obligation to pay you any of those earnings.
